Patrick Rothfuss Quotes

I've always loved massive worlds, whether in fantasy or science fiction. I like the idea of making my own rules as well as utilizing everything that I love or inspires me. It's very freeing to know you can write a story that can be as big as your own imagination.

I have so many themes I want to explore, so many questions I'd like to raise and develop, and hopefully, I'll get to do just that.

I love the 'what if' nature of sci-fi.

Sometimes an old idea gets relegated to the back of the line in the mad delight of a new idea, one you've never had before, and that you write fast in the thrill of the new. No rules. Just stories, and you tell as many of them as you can.

I don't want to write my life. I live my life. I want to make up a new world.

There is a plethora of topics to explore. I sometimes think I may never live long enough to explore all of the unique story lines I have either in my head or waiting in my computer file.

I love the sci-fi world and the way it makes me start to question things.

Science fiction is a way that I can go into the abstract, go into the imagination, and audiences are still willing to go along for the ride.

I feel so free and open to ideas, and I get inspired by everything.

Telling a story in a futuristic world gives you this freedom to explore things that bother you in contemporary times.

I can create countries just as I can create the actions of my characters. That is why a lot of travel seems to me a waste of time.

When I think about myself as a writer, for sure I am a science fiction writer. The tools of extrapolation, the tools of anticipating the future - those are science fictional questions.

I don't know whether I have ideas all the time. I think I'm curious about things all the time; I think I'm always curious, and I think I'm always interested in whatever passes by, and I know I tend to think about things, and I tend to talk about things, and sometimes that takes root and gives me something to chase.

It's the imagination that is involved in sci-fi, and fantasy is what draws me to it. Stories, everything.

Kids are naturally inventive and curious and creative, but most adults have had that beaten out of them. Writing is a form of play; you have to get rid of all those internal censors that we adults have, the things that say, 'Don't go there, that's not allowed.'

The fact that it's science fiction gives you the license to do anything you want to do.

Alternate history fascinates me, as it fascinates all novelists, because 'What if?' is the big thing.

I think the least important thing about science fiction for me is its predictive capacity.

Science and fiction both begin with similar questions: What if? Why? How does it all work? But they focus on different areas of life on earth.

Being a fiction writer makes you someone who works with irresponsibility.

When I start any book, I have no idea what I'm going to do.

Science fiction frees you to go anyplace and examine anything.

I think mystery... allows us time to dream.

It's what still excites me most about acting: letting your imagination go places it's never been before. There's nothing better than that.

In a sense, fantasy is a freer play of the imagination. You can achieve exactly the situation you want with less groundwork, less of a need to fill in all of the background. For science fiction, I would use a lot of sources to set up, for instance, what a being from another planet would be like.